The exclusion applies to current equipment and next-generation 5G equipment, Kyodo reported without citing sources.

Representatives of the three telcos, NTT Docomo, KDDI Corp and SoftBank Group Corp, were not immediately available to comment.

Japan plans to ban government purchases of equipment Huawei and ZTE to beef up its defences against intelligence leaks and cyber attacks, sources told Reuters last week. (Reporting by Sam Nussey and Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)